This is my first Ficathon! ::Bounces up and down with the happiness:: Here's my entry. Hope it's fun to read!

The Orphan-Grinda

DEAD MAN RUNNING

Yasuki Benichi had better not be late with his bribe today. I have more things to do this evening than I care to think about and if he keeps me waiting in an attempt to drive down the price, there’ll be Jigoku to pay. You work with these opium smugglers long enough and they start to misunderstand their position in the world. I work on the Isles of Silk and Spice, so I see it all the time. Some fool pays his bribes on time and thinks that makes him ‘an asset’ to the Magistracy here in the Mantis lands. Some of the old veterans of the economic politics here have the gall to think that they’re ‘indispensible’ and start jerking us around. Benichi might be wandering towards that. He hasn’t been here long, but he supplies Yoritomo Genjin’s opium, so I imagine he thinks that if I break his wrists, Genjin will intercede. Well, if he starts in with all that foolishness, he’ll find out that no one loves him.

“Ah, Tsuruchi Gineza-sama!â€

Whoops. Darn board ate the end of my story. Here's the rest.

“Of course,â€